


War Reparations

by thesometimeswarrior



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Episode: s02e07 Zuko Alone, Gen, Post-Canon, Post-Canon Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-04
Updated: 2015-06-04
Packaged: 2018-04-02 19:05:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4071193
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesometimeswarrior/pseuds/thesometimeswarrior
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“He’ll see me. Go ask him. Tell him that he once taught me how to use dual swords, late at night, and that I told him that he’d like my brother Sensu. Tell him that he once tried to give me a dagger with the inscription ‘Never give up without a fight’… but I refused it.”</p><p>After the War, Lee seeks out Zuko.</p>
            </blockquote>





	War Reparations

He stepped off the ship, straightening his tunic—the cleanest he owned—and looked around, agog. He never thought he’d end up here, in the Fire Nation Capital City, especially not of his own free will. (Admittedly he never imagined he’d leave his village in the Southern Earth Kingdom. But to come here of all places…) And yet, here he was: a fourteen-year-old farm boy with scruffy hair and dirty feet, in the biggest city of a country he’d spent most of his life fearing and hating. He breathed. (In through the nose, out through the mouth, like Sensu had taught him.)

The city was huge. He’d never seen so many people or buildings in one place, never heard as much unrelated noise blending together into a single arrangement. And it was all Fire Nation. Was Ba Sing Se like this too, except filled with Earth Kingdom people, like him, and the buildings that they’d designed and built? He closed his eyes, imagining it, briefly. Maybe he’d see it some day…But it wasn’t likely. It had taken him five years to be able to amass the funds to get here. And, besides, he was needed at the farm; with his father and Sensu for the most part unable to work, he and his mother were the lone able-bodied people in the family. And she had more than enough to do, with two disabled men to care for. He felt guilty enough about leaving her now, to travel here, but this was something he needed to do too.

On the journey, he had worried about whether he’d be able to find the palace, but now that he was here, he realized there was no way he could have possibly avoided it. It stood, dignified, in the center of the city, its tower the most prominent part of the skyline. When he came to the two guards at its front gate, he began: “I’m here ta—“ but then, remembering his father’s suggestion—“Speak respectfully and formally. Not like we speak around here,”—stopped, bowed, then corrected himself: “I mean, I humbly request an audience with Fire Lord Zuko.”

The guards each raised an eyebrow. “What is your business?” One of them asked. “Are you from Yu Dao? Or another colony?”

The boy shook his head. “No. I’m from a village in the Southern Earth Kingdom.”

“Well,” responded a guard. “Our Fire Lord has many demands on his time. He is not even able to see most peasan—I mean rural people—from even his own Nation. So you’ll understand that he cannot be expected to meet with every person who comes unannounced to his front gate, especially those who are not even under his jurisdiction.”

“He’ll see me.” Any thoughts of being respectful were gone from his brain, because he was resolute. “Go ask him. Tell him that he once taught me how to use dual swords, late at night, and that I told him that he’d like my brother Sensu. Tell him that he once tried to give me a dagger with the inscription ‘Never give up without a fight’… but I refused it.”

The guards’ expressions changed, oscillating between surprise and skepticism, but eventually one of them did indeed turn to enter the palace. The boy stood with the other guard, silently, awkwardly. He hadn’t questioned it before, for one thing because he had heard rumors about the Fire Lord as a man of the people, but more because he knew the stranger he had met six years ago would see him, but what if the Zuko of today wouldn’t? After all of his kindness, they had turned him away viciously. The boy vividly remembered his words to him— _I hate you_ —right after Zuko had saved him and offered him his prized dagger. But then that was why he was here; to make amends.

Presently, the guard returned and motioned at the boy to follow her. “The Fire Lord will see you,” she said. As they walked through the palace, the guard evidently was not feeling discreet. “Protocol dictates that the Fire Lord should meet with you in the throne room. But he has decided today to meet with you in the tea room.” Though reading people was not one of his particular strong suits, the boy could tell that she was not in favor of this break from the norm. It didn’t matter to him. He was too in awe of the grandiose architecture of the palace, so far removed from anything in his experience.

Finally they reached a small room, with a door that appeared modest compared to all the others they had passed. The guard turned to him, opening the door. “The Fire Lord is in here. Have respect.” The boy breathed once, as Sensu had taught him, and walked through the door. 

And there he was. The mysterious man with the scar, who had wandered into their town near the end of the war—the one who had mended their barn, taught him how to fight after he’d stolen his swords from him. The one who hadn’t ratted him out to the soilders. The one who had rescued him from those same soilders. Sure, he was cleaner now, with longer hair and more ornate clothing. But it was still him.

“Lee,” he said, standing.

The boy’s jaw dropped. “You remember my name. After all these years.”

“Of course I remember your name. You and your family took me in at a time when I needed it the most.”

“We also ran you out after we found out who you were.”

“We were at war, and I was part of the royal family of a nation that had caused you a lot of suffering. I understood.”

“But it was still wrong. You’d done nothing but help us. Even with your firebening.”

Zuko motioned toward the chairs at the side of the room. “Why don’t we sit? I have some of my Uncle’s tea.”

After they had sat and the tea was poured, Zuko asked, “So, Lee, I’m glad to see you, but why are you here? You’re a long way from home.”

“To apologize, mainly. News takes a long time to reach us, but after the war, we eventually found out your part in ending it. That you taught the Avatar firebending. And then defeated your sister and became firelord. I couldn’t stop thinkin’ about what I said to you. We all knew it was a mistake turning you away. And my father was furious at us, said we had no business turning away anyone, much less someone who had helped us, especially the type of person who would help the Avatar, no matter who he was. Dad’s always been big on hospitality, though, I guess.”

“Your father—he survived then? Was he alright?”

“Yeah. Didn’t come back unscathed though. Burned pretty bad. On a good day, he can help Mom and I work. But not all the time. I try and help as much as I can--It’s rough for Mom, though with two disabled men to care for and a farm to run…”

“Two?”

“Oh yeah—Sensu’s alive! Hurt worse than Dad though. He can’t walk at all—see his legs and back were burnt a lot. Doctor said the fire ruined his ‘nerves’ or something. I didn’t really get it.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It wasn’t your fault. You stopped the guy who did it!”

“Not at first.” Zuko paced to the window. “After I left you, I helped my sister conquer Ba Sing Se. And who knows how many people suffered there because of that. It took a while for me to realize that what I had done was wrong. Too long.”

“But you figured it out. And you helped make it better. Who knows if the Avatar would have ever beat the Fire Lord without you!”

“You sound like my Uncle,” said Zuko, turning back to Lee. “Why do you care so much about me to apologize? People do things to other people that they shouldn’t do all the time. Even if they feel bad about it, I doubt many people would have traveled across the ocean just to say that they’re sorry. Why did you?”

The boy blinked. Didn’t Zuko understand? “Because you helped us when no one else would. And maybe that was the right thing to do, but no one else would do it. And when you caught me stealing your swords, you taught me to fight with them instead of yelling at me or hurting me. You saved me from the fake soldiers in our village. You reminded me of my brother, and I looked up to you. And I think, in a weird way that I didn’t understand—and maybe even made me mad—I still looked up to you after I knew you were Fire Nation. And after I found out that you helped the Avatar end the war, I idolized you even more. I still do. So I had to apologize. And I had to say thanks, because I guess I never really did.”

Zuko smiled. “Last time I tried to give this to you, you didn’t want it,” he said, reaching under is robes and retrieving his dagger from its sheath. “But if you want it now, I’d still like you to have it.”

Now it was Lee’s turn to smile. He gripped the other side of the knife extended to him. “Thank you.”

“Will you follow me?” Zuko asked, leading Lee out the door. “There’s something else I want to give you for your family. I want to help you and your family for what you’ve suffered because of my family and my nation. I’m trying to organize a formal system for war reparations to the Water Tribe and Earth Kingdom.”

“What’s a reparation?”

“It’s when a country gives money to help people its hurt in war, to try to ease the damage. And in a way, to apologize. I haven’t figured out an effective system yet. But I will.” 

They reached a large fortess-like building. The guards in front of the door bowed to Zuko and made way, and Lee followed Zuko inside. He gasped—he’d never seen so much gold in one place before. 

“This is the royal treasury,” said Zuko. “I can’t formally give you money for damages yet, because I don’t want to do that until I can make it public—as soon as I do, your family will know. But in the mean time, consider this repayment for giving me food and shelter all those years ago.” And he handed him several bars of solid gold.

“This is worth way more than the food my mom made you or the haystack in the barn you slept on!”

Zuko shrugged. “The rest is a thank you gift. Maybe it’ll make easier for you and your mom.”

As they walked out of the treasury, Lee remarked: “You know, the people who talk about you in the Earth Kingdom don’t know you.”

“What do they say about me in the Earth Kingdom?”

“Well, a lot of people don’t talk about you at all, and some are pissed about the Yu Dao thing, which I don’t really know anything about. But a lot people say that you’re fierce, that you’re always ready for a fight, and that you never give up. And that’s all true. But they don’t how kind you are, or how honorable. But I do.”

Lee started to bow to Zuko, but before he could, the Fire Lord, in front of all his guards and courtiers, wrapped him, the Earth Kingdom farm boy into a tight embrace.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! "Zuko Alone" is one of my favorite episodes of A:TLA, and I've always been fascinated by the quick relationship that Zuko seems to form with Lee. I've loved thinking about what happens to Lee after the war.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!


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